DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0146
130 THE TREASURY OF THE SIPHNIANS
Artemis in the battle with the giants of the north frieze.
The two chariots have stopped, the goddesses are alighting,
in front of Aphrodite's car we still see in pale colours the
reins wrapped tightly round the high uprights, and before
both teams stand gods, “ for timorous is the horse's eye
and must be quieted," 1 and nevertheless seem to have
seized the foremost pair by the bridle. Gods as grooms
are not a rare phenomenon on vase-paintings; it is the
picture of the civilization of a time when people possessed
fewer slaves, and when, therefore, free men could also
perform menial work : in a similar way Hermes appears as
cup-bearer in a fragment of Sappho.2
The gods of the frieze fall into two groups : on the one side
(fig. 45) Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus ; on the other (fig. 48)
Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis. The arrival in chariots
reminds one of the descriptions of the Iliad, where the god-
desses in their carriages drive off to the Trojan battle-field.3
We must therefore assume a battle scene in the centre now
lost, and the gods, as in the east frieze, divided according
to sympathies. Now, in the twentieth Iliad there is really
a battle scene and distribution of gods which exactly answers
to that of the frieze. Zeus has given the gods leave to join
the combatants, and they go off each to their side, and the
battle of the gods begins. On the Greek side are arrayed
Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus, of
whom in the destruction of the frieze we miss only two,
Hera and Poseidon. On the Trojan side fight Ares, Apollo,
Artemis, Leto, the river-god Xanthus, and Aphrodite.
Perhaps for symmetry's sake the sculptor omitted the
less important river-god, and then we should only be without
one, the goddess Leto.
Even with the addition of the gods who are wanting,
there is room in the centre for a large battle scene—naturally
without war chariots—and it is natural to assume a repre-
sentation of Achilles’ fight in revenge for Patroclus, which
in the twentieth book assumes great dimensions and puts
in motion the whole divine world. That the gods are here
divided, not collected as they are in the east frieze, whose
battle description, taken from the seventeenth book, is
1 Iph. Aul., 650. 2 Athenaeus, v. 192 c. 3 Iliad, v. 720 ff.; viii. 41 f.; xiii. 23 f.
Artemis in the battle with the giants of the north frieze.
The two chariots have stopped, the goddesses are alighting,
in front of Aphrodite's car we still see in pale colours the
reins wrapped tightly round the high uprights, and before
both teams stand gods, “ for timorous is the horse's eye
and must be quieted," 1 and nevertheless seem to have
seized the foremost pair by the bridle. Gods as grooms
are not a rare phenomenon on vase-paintings; it is the
picture of the civilization of a time when people possessed
fewer slaves, and when, therefore, free men could also
perform menial work : in a similar way Hermes appears as
cup-bearer in a fragment of Sappho.2
The gods of the frieze fall into two groups : on the one side
(fig. 45) Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus ; on the other (fig. 48)
Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis. The arrival in chariots
reminds one of the descriptions of the Iliad, where the god-
desses in their carriages drive off to the Trojan battle-field.3
We must therefore assume a battle scene in the centre now
lost, and the gods, as in the east frieze, divided according
to sympathies. Now, in the twentieth Iliad there is really
a battle scene and distribution of gods which exactly answers
to that of the frieze. Zeus has given the gods leave to join
the combatants, and they go off each to their side, and the
battle of the gods begins. On the Greek side are arrayed
Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus, of
whom in the destruction of the frieze we miss only two,
Hera and Poseidon. On the Trojan side fight Ares, Apollo,
Artemis, Leto, the river-god Xanthus, and Aphrodite.
Perhaps for symmetry's sake the sculptor omitted the
less important river-god, and then we should only be without
one, the goddess Leto.
Even with the addition of the gods who are wanting,
there is room in the centre for a large battle scene—naturally
without war chariots—and it is natural to assume a repre-
sentation of Achilles’ fight in revenge for Patroclus, which
in the twentieth book assumes great dimensions and puts
in motion the whole divine world. That the gods are here
divided, not collected as they are in the east frieze, whose
battle description, taken from the seventeenth book, is
1 Iph. Aul., 650. 2 Athenaeus, v. 192 c. 3 Iliad, v. 720 ff.; viii. 41 f.; xiii. 23 f.